Community College Instructor's Qualifications?

I dont know if this answers your question but it is VERY hard to get instructors to teach nursing which is why it is so hard to get into. Nurses with masters are making big $$$ and as a teacher they may get like half that, maybe 25.00/hr so why would someone want to do that? Atleast at my college thats what I have been told.

I am attending a community college while I work on my prereqs, and hope to attend the nursing school at the same college in the Fall for the ADN, though I will eventually go on to a BSN and then Master's program.

I had to download the school catalog yesterday because my teenage son threw mine away; as I was looking over the pages coming out of the printer I was suprised to see that none of my instructors this semester hold higher than a bachelor's degree. It looks like only a few of the instructors at the school have a master's degree (the nursing instructors do). I was under the impression that you had to have a master's to teach at the college level.

Is this common? Are the standards at community colleges lower than those at universities? Or am I getting a sub-standard education with worthless credits that won't transfer? The school has students transfer to unverisities all the time, so surely it's legit?

wow, never heard of that before. The instructors at my school have at least a Masters!

Misjen:

This is a state by state thing. The Oklahoma State Board of Nursing determines who gets to take the N-CLEX... which is almost always those who have graduated from accredited Schools of Nursing. Since it's the State Board who accredits schools, they are the ones to establish mandatory minimum standards for nursing faculty.

In our state (also way out West) a law was passed (that ammended the Nurse Practice Act) that all nursing faculty HAD to be MSN or higher. All faculties, including Community Colleges. This requirement turned out to be almost impossible for the CC's in the "Cow Counties" to comply with. Consequently, the Board took the position that faculty who were in the process of getting their MSN's were OK to teach.

I think this is a politico-economic issue. Most Nsg. Schools are government run (State or County.) They don't want to spend any more of their budget on education than they have to. Happily for them, the State Board is a government entity. They don't have any incentive for forcing Universities and CC's to spend more money. And both educators, government budget bureaucrats and Boards (like Boards of Nursing) who are appointed by politicians have direct lines to the guys who write laws... our legislators.

And that's where conditions will remain unless an outside force pressures the people who write the laws. In our case it took a lot of involvement from our State Nursing Association.

To get accreditation in the Nursing programs, the instructors have to be Masters. This is why there is such a shortage.

BSN are very common in colleges in other areas and many colleges.

i wish to add that ba and bs degrees are common practice in other fields of study and are considered within the qualifications needed to teach at ccs. from what i understand, those with bas and bss are allowed to teach "entry-level" courses so long as he/she has several years of work experience in the subject matter he/she is teaching. with a masters he/she may teach more advanced course work within his/her field of study or expertise.

for example, i teach advance course work at a community college within my masters subject level, however if i choose to teach subjects based on my ba (though i have years of work experience) i can only teach entry-level classes, which is also reflected in my pay.

furthermore, i know some instructors/professors who teach trade courses (auto mech etc.) that do not have college degrees. however all have 10-20 years of work experience and are highly valued and sought after by community colleges.

so, do not worry. you are not necessarily getting a substandard education if your instructor/professor only has a ba or bs degree.

Just a reflection here, but I think the Community College system was a genious idea. Don't know what policy wonk thought it up, but it has really become an engine for upward mobility that is genuinely American in character. Not only can people pull themselve upward educationally and economically, but they can re-invent themselves with second and even third careers.

Cool.

The community college that I went to in pa the NURSING instructors all had MSN's or Doctorates. The gen ed had a mix of masters and bs/ba degree's.

all of my pre-req instructors have masters degrees. I checked out my college employment page and that's a requirement for all of the open positions for instructors is that they must have a masters degree in the subject they teach. I've also had quite a few instructors at the community college I go to with doctorates degrees.

Here in MA, you need a minimum of a bachelors degree with several years experience in your nursing specialty, and to be enrolled in a Masters progaram to become adjunct faculty. As far as I am concerned, I prefer to gain knowledge from their years of experience; not the fact that they have a Masters. The teachers also have to be certified by the state to teach. Most of the time when you transfer it is not your nursing classess that are in question it is the gen ed classes. Good Luck to you in your career!Mary